“After the game I get back to my locker and there’s a ball sitting on my chair and it says, ‘Haha, you should have let it fall.’ And it’s signed ‘David Wright.’ It didn’t really look like his signature, so I automatically thought it was a joke. It ends up being one of the clubbies who did it. But I realize it would actually be pretty cool if I get [Wright] to sign that ball.

“I get to the field the next day and it’s like the sixth inning and I’m thinking, ‘Should I do this?’ I talk to Jay Bruce about it and he says, ‘Ah, [Wright’s] a great guy.’ So I run in, get the ball, give it to one of the clubbies and he takes it over.

“I get back to my chair after the game and there’s a ball that says, ‘Haha no really, you should have let it drop.’ So I have that now and that’s one of those things I’ll remember forever.”

O’Brien also admitted the catch — made in foul territory — almost came to be.

“I don’t know if you saw the video, I did a little hop-jump,” O’Brien said. “I’m thinking, ‘I’m right next to the fence,’ and I look down, and I still have 5 more feet. It was almost dropped, but not on purpose.”

If only, but alas, the newly-minted Mets front office exec reacted with the grace that largely marked his career in Queens.